EXECUTIVE MANSION, _June 19, 1886_.
_To the House of Representatives_:
I return without my approval House bill No. 4002, entitled "An act
granting a pension to Carter W. Tiller."
The records of the War Department show that George W. Tiller, the son
of the claimant, enlisted in a Kentucky regiment on the 8th day of
October, 1861, and that he deserted on the 20th day of September, 1863;
that he was captured by the Confederates afterwards, but the time and
circumstances are not given. On the 21st day of July, 1864, he was
admitted to the Andersonville hospital, and died the same day of
scorbutus.
The father filed his claim for a pension in 1877, alleging his
dependence upon the deceased soldier. It is probably true that the son
while in the Army sent money to the claimant, though he appears to have
been employed as a policeman in the city of Louisville ever since his
son's death, at a fair salary.
The claim thus made was rejected by the Pension Bureau on the ground
that the claimant was not dependent upon his son.
I am entirely satisfied of the correctness of this determination, and if
the records presented to me are reliable I think the fact which appears
therefrom, that the death of the soldier occurred ten months after
desertion and had no apparent relation to any service in the Union Army,
is conclusive against the claim now made.